Pick for knitting machines



1, 1959 E. 51- PIERRE 2,898,752

PICK FOR KNITTING MACHINES Filed April 5, .957

I'm/5N 701? 0 5: 5r Heme J7 flrrm Company, Pawtucket, R.I., a corporation of Massachusetts Application April 5, 1957, Serial No. 650,925

2 Claims. (CI. 66-48) This invention is concerned with independent needle knitting machines and, particularly, with picks used in such machines.

A knitting machine pick is a regular component of most hosiery machines and many other knitting machines. It consists of .a shank pivoted at an angle to the path of the needles and a head normally lying in a position to engage the operating butts of one or more needles and, under the impact of passing needle butts, swings on its angular pivot out of the needle path carrying the engaged needles with it. Such picks are well known in the art, and are described in publications such as Chamberlains Knitting Mathematics and Mechanisms published by the College of Technology in Leicester, England, and volume I of Principles of Knitting by William E. Shinn, published by Clark Publishing Company of Charlotte, N.C. in 1946.

The needle moving head of the pick has a lip consisting of two surfaces at right angles to each other. One surface, termed the side, takes the impact of the needle butt which pushes the pick out of the path of oncoming needles. The other surface is called the base. It carries one or more needles with the pick.

Generally, the practice has been to mill these surfaces into the head of the pick and hand file them to as near a right angle as possible, and subsequently harden and polish them. The more economic method of grinding has not been satisfactory because it leaves a radius or curvature at the juncture of the surfaces. Also, it has been a problem to polish without creating a similar curvature.

This curvature is a problem, especially with picks designed to operate on fine gauge needles, because the needle butts may slide to the top of the radius, thereby increasing the effective length of the base so that it carries more needles than desired, or the butt may lodge at the bottom of the curvature and the pick will not move the full number of needles desired. For a reliable picking operation, an absolutely square and sharp cornered 90 angle between the base and the side is a practical necessity.

The object of the present invention is to provide, for knitting machines, a pick which is more reliable in operation and easier of manufacture than those of the prior art and, more specifically, one which is economical to manufacture and yet avoids any tendency toradius or curvature .at the junction of its base and side.

This is accomplished by forming the needle engaging lip of the head of the pick with two surfaces substantially at right angles to each other and with one of the surfaces undercutting the other so that, although they are perpendicular, they are not contiguous.

This improved pick structure is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a perspective view of a needle pick assembly;

Figure 2 is a similar View, enlarged, of the head only of the picking assembly of Figure 1; and

States Patent ICC Figure 3 is a perspective of a so-called double pick embodying the invention.

Referring to Figure 1, the pick assembly shown comprises a head 11 carried by a shaft 1'2 mounted in'a block 13 pivoted on a stud 14 screwed into'an angular surface 15 of a bracket 16. A coil spring 17 resiliently urges the pick to the position shown where the head 11 is adapted to engage the butts of passing needles. The needle moving part of the head 11 comprises a lip formed by a side surface 18 and a base surface 19 at right angles to each other.

The impact of a needle against the vertical side 18 causes the pick to swing on its pivot 14 so that the head moves in an 'arc upwardly and to the right from the position viewed in Figure 1. As the pick thus swings away from the needle path, the base 19 engages the operating butts of one or more needles, depending on its length, and carries these needles with the pick so that they are removed from the path of following needles.

As explained above, it is essential for reliable operation that the surfaces 18 and 19 be at exactly right angles with each other. Curvature of the angle or the build-up. of a radius joining the two surfaces results in the pick moving either too many or too few needles. To avoid this, the present invention provides that the two surfaces be proximate but not contiguous at their juncture and that one undercut the other so that the second is perpendicular to a point removed from the end of the first. This is accomplished in the embodiment shown in the drawings by having the base 19 undercut the side 18 so as to form an extension or notch 20.

The dimensions of the needle moving lip of the pick are governed by the size and the number of needle butts it is designed to carry. The sides 18 are approximately the same height as the butts, and'the base 19 is as long as the distance covered by the number of butts it is designed to move. The notch or slot 20' should be high enough and deep enough to eliminate the curvature or radius, and yet not so high as to interfere with the pick driving impact of the butt or so deep as to weaken the overall structure of the lip. For gauge needles having butts approximately A;" high, a notch high and deep, leaving .a side /a high, has proved satisfactory.

Picks are of two general types. Usually, they either lift needles from an active to an inactive path, in which case they are called narrowing picks or lifters; or, they lower needles from the inactive path to the active path and .are called droppers.

Figures 1 and 2 show a narrowing pick or lifter; and Figure 3 shows a widening pick or dropper. The structure of Figure 3 is also called a double pick because the head 11a is provided with two, oppositely facing, side surfaces 18a, two base surfaces 19a, and two undercuts or notches 20a. Such duplication on a single picking head is well known in the art and permits the pick to be used for both directions of needle travel during reciprocatory knitting.

The invention has been explained with respect to a needle operating pick, where the picking head engages the operating butt of a needle to move that needle. It is equally useful in other applications, such as when the pick is used to engage the operating butt of a needle jack or any similar knitting instrumentality.

I claim:

1.- A pick for use in an independent needle knitting machine having a shank, a pivot at one end of said shank and a butt engaging head at the other, said head having lip and base portions defined by planar surfaces disposed at substantially a right angle, .and means defining an undercut at the point at which said surfaces, if extended, would intersect, said undercut extending behind at least one of said surfaces.

2. A pick for use in an independent needle knitting machine having a shank, a pivot at one end of said shank and a butt engaging head at the other, said head having lip and base portions defined by planar surfaces disposed at substantially a right angle, and means defining an undercut at the point at which said lip, if extended, would intersect the base, said undercut extending behind the plane of said lip.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Page Nov. 20, 1945 Pierre Apr. 13, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain May 9, 1951 

